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puncheon noun A split log or rough timber having one face smoothed by an adze, used for flooring, benching, siding of log buildings, etc.

1826 Whitten Letter [We cook] out of doors no time to get pencheons to lay the floor. 1863 Gilliland CW Letters (May 17) i want you to git Some of the boys [to] put them big puncheons over the well in the place of that oald plank for fear it brakes & lets some of you fall in. 1931 Greve Tradition Gatlinburg 69 Their floors were made of puncheons, huge poplar logs, two feet or more in width, hewn smooth on the upper side, but left rounded and with bark on beneath. 1960 Arnow Seedtime on Cumberland 267 The cabin floor was usually made of puncheons; for these a ten-foot length of log was split, then each side hewed down to some manageable thickness, commonly about two inches; the great plank thus formed not only required a deal of work, but it was much as a man could do to lift one. 1995 Trout Historic Buildings 26 Puncheons were used where sawn lumber or nails were not yet available. The workman would split a short log, in the manner of a hot dog roll, and lay the halves from joist to joist, round side down. The roughly flat upper surfaces would then be dressed with a foot adze or ax until smooth enough to eliminate toe-catching edges and large splinters.